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Spring Training Miscellany: Cubs 7, Mariners 4 – March 21, 2013

Writing a game recap type thing in the wee hours of the morning is getting me thinking about doing Enhanced Box Scores for West Coast games … and I’m getting excited for the season.

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Jeff Samardzija pitched adequately as he tunes up for the season, facing a mostly-regular Mariners lineup (which is like a mostly-bench other team lineup). He allowed nine hits and three earned runs in his six innings of work, but he struck out seven, walking none. I’ll take that. Combine that with Scott Feldman’s start earlier in the day, and that’s 11 innings of starter work without a single walk.

Samardzija got the Cubs’ bats going with a homer of his own – his second of the Spring. Extrapolating that, Samardzija’s going to have about 20 homers this year. Neat.

It is completely meaningless, but I’m going to point it out anyway: when Dale Sveum went James Russell, Kyuji Fujikawa, and Carlos Marmol over the last three innings, he had Russell in the seventh as you’d expect … but he put Marmol in the 8th and Fujikawa in the 9th. Again: totally meaningless. But, I mean, it happened.

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All three threw a scoreless frame, by the way, with only Fujikawa allowing a hit (two of ’em), and only Marmol allowing a walk (1 of ’em).

Alfonso Soriano hit his fourth homer of the Spring, so he’s on target to repeat his 2012 season: which is to say, a surprisingly cool April after a hot March, but then a dominant May through September.

Brad Nelson also homered, and he’s fixing to see some regular time at first base for AAA Iowa, if the Cubs see fit to keep him.

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Alberto Gonzalez had a hit and a walk in four plate appearances, as he tries to surprise and win a bench job. He also had a throwing error.

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